The Wounded Land

His assertion appalled her. She recoiled. Gasping, she strove to shout, but could not find enough air in all the wide morning. “You are mad. Or a servant of a-Jeroth, as the Rede proclaims.” She turned toward Linden, then Sunder, beseeching them to hear her. “You must not permit it.” She snatched a raw breath, cried out, “You must not!”

Covenant sprang at her, dug his fingers into her shoulders, shook her. “What's wrong with Andelain?”

Hollian's mouth worked; but she could find no words.

“Sunder!” Covenant barked.

Stiffly, the Graveller replied, “I am fourscore leagues from my home. I know nothing of this Andelain.”

Hollian fought to master herself. “Covenant,” she said in a livid tone, “you may eat aliantha. You may defy the Clave. You may trample upon the Rede, and cast your challenge to the Sunbane itself. But you must not enter Andelain.”

Covenant lowered his voice, demanded dangerously, “Why not?”

“It is a snare and a delusion!” she moaned. 'An abomination in the Land. It lies lovely and cruel before the eyes, and seduces all who look upon it to their destruction. It is impervious to the Sunbane!'

“Impossible!” snapped Sunder.

“No!” Hollian panted. “I speak truly. Sun after sun, it remains unaltered, imitating paradise.” She thrust all her dismay at Covenant. 'Many people have been betrayed-The tale of them is often told in all this region. But I speak not only of tales. I have known four-four brave Stonedownors who succumbed to that lure. Distraught by their lives, they left Crystal Stonedown to test the tale of Andelain. Two entered, and did not return. Two made their way to Crystal Stonedown once more-and the madness in them raved like the na-Mhoram's Grim. No succour could anile their violence. Croft was driven to sacrifice them.

“Covenant,” she begged, “do not journey there. You will meet a doom more terrible than any unshielded Sunbane.” Her every word vibrated with conviction, with honest fear. “Andelain is a desecration of the soul.”

Roughly, Covenant thrust the eh-Brand away from him. He whirled, strode down the slope to stand at the water's edge. His fists clenched and unclenched, trembling, at his sides.

Linden went to him at once, seeking a way to dissuade him. She believed Hollian. But when she touched his arm, the savagery in him struck her mute. “Andelain.” His voice was taut with fatality and rage. Without warning, he turned on her. His eyes blazed through her. “You say you've stood by me.” His whisper expressed more bloodshed than any shout. “Do it now. Nothing else matters. Stand by me.”

Before she could try to respond, he spun toward Sunder and Hollian. They stared at him, dumbfounded by his passion. The sun limned his profile like a cynosure. “Andelain used to be the heart of the Land.” He sounded as if he were strangling. “I have to find out what happened to it.” The next moment, he was in the water, swimming downriver with all his strength.

Linden checked herself, did not follow him. He could not keep up that pace; she would be able to rejoin him. Stand by me. Her senses told her that Hollian spoke the truth. There was something heinous concealed in Andelain. But Covenant's appeal outweighed any conviction of peril. She had striven with the intimacy of a lover to save his life. The cost of that intimacy she could not endure; but she could do other things for him. She faced the Stonedownors. “Sunder?”

The Graveller glanced away along the River, then over at Hollian, before he met Linden's demand. “The eh- Brand is a Stonedownor,” he replied, “like myself. I trust her fear. But my lot now lies with the ur-Lord. I will accompany him.”

With a simple nod, Linden accepted his decision. “Hollian?”

The eh-Brand seemed unable to confront the choice she had to make. Her eyes wandered the stone, searching it for answers it did not contain. “Does it come to this?” she murmured bitterly, “that I have been rescued from peril into peril?” But slowly she summoned up the strength which had enabled her to face Croft and Sivit with dignity. “It is stated in the Rede beyond any doubt that the Halfhand is a servant of a-Jeroth.”

Flatly, Linden said, “The Rede is wrong.”

“That cannot be!” Hollian's fear was palpable in the air. “If the Rede is false, how can it sustain life?”

Unexpectedly, Sunder interposed himself. “Eh-Brand.” His voice knotted as if he had arrived without warning or preparation at a crisis. “Linden Avery speaks of another wrong altogether. To her, all things are wrong which arise from the Sunbane.”

Hollian stared at him. And Linden, too, watched him narrowly. She chaffed to be on her way; but the Graveller's efforts to resolve his own feelings kept her still.

“Eh-Brand,” he went on, gritting his teeth, 'I have held you in resentment. Your presence is a reproach to me. You are a Stonedownor. You comprehend what has come to pass when a Graveller betrays his home. Whether you choose or no, you accuse me. And your plight is enviable to me. You are innocent of where you stand. Whatever path you follow from this place, none can lay blame upon you. All my paths are paths of blame.

'My vindication has been that I am necessary to the ur-Lord, and to Linden Avery, and to their purpose. His vision touched my heart, and the survival of that vision has been in my hands. Lacking my aid, they would be long dead, and with them the one clear word of beauty I have been given to hear.

“Whether you choose or no, you deprive me of my necessity. Your knowledge of the Sunbane and of the perils before us surely excels mine. You give healing where I cannot. You have not shed life. In your presence, I have no answer to my guilt.”

“Sunder,” Hollian breathed. “Graveller. This castigation avails nothing. The past is beyond change. Your vindication cannot be taken from you.”

“All things change,” he replied tightly. “Ur-Lord Covenant alters the past at every turning. Therefore”- he cut off her protest. “I am without choice, I cannot bear that this alteration should be undone. But there is choice for you. And because you own choice, eh-Brand, I implore you. Give your service to the ur-Lord. He offers much-and is in such need. Your aid is greater than mine.”

Hollian's gaze scoured him as he spoke. But she did not find any answer to her fear. “Ah,” she sighed bitterly, “I do not see this choice. Death lies behind me and horror before. This is not choice. It is torment.”

“It is choice!” Sunder shouted, unable to restrain his vehemence. “Neither death nor horror is compulsory for you. You may depart from us. Find a new people to be your home. They will distrust you for a time-but that will pass. No Stonedown would willingly sacrifice an eh-Brand.”

His words took both Hollian and Linden by surprise. Hollian had plainly given no thought to the idea he raised. And Linden could not guess why he used such an argument. “Sunder,” she said carefully, “what do you think you're doing?”

“I seek to persuade her.” He did not take his eyes from Hollian. “A choice made freely is stronger than one compelled. We must have her strength-else I fear we will not gain Revelstone.”

Linden strove to understand him. “Do you mean to tell me that now you want to go to Revelstone?”

“I must,” he responded; but his words were directed toward the eh-Brand. “No other purpose remains to me. I must see the lies of the Rede answered. Throughout all the generations of the Sunbane, the Riders have taken blood in the name of the Rede. Now they must be required to speak the truth.”

Linden nodded, bent her attention on Hollian as the eh-Brand absorbed his argument, hunted for a reply. After a moment, she said slowly, holding his gaze, “In the aliantha- if in no other way-I have been given cause to misdoubt the Rede. And Sivit na-Mhoram-wist sought my death, though it was plain for all to see that I was of great benefit to Crystal Stonedown. If you follow ur-Lord Covenant in the name of truth, I will accompany you.” At once, she turned to Linden. “But I will not enter Andelain. That I will not do.”

Linden acknowledged this proviso. “All right. Let's go.” She had been too long away from Covenant; her anxiety for him tightened all her muscles. But one last requirement held her back. “Sunder,” she said deliberately. “Thanks.”

Her gratitude seemed to startle him. But then he replied with a mute bow. In that gesture, they understood each other.

Leaving the knapsack and the raft to the Stonedownors, Linden dove into the water and went after Covenant.

She found him resting on a sand-spit beyond a bend in the River. He looked weary and abandoned, as if he had not expected her to come. But when she pulled herself out of the water near him, shook her eyes clear, she